Cutting Faces in Sketchup

I have just had an ahaaaaaa moment in sketchup and thought I would share it with everyone…

I have always had issues cutting faces in sketchup, I have followed several tutorials and just never seem to get the grip…Today I have found a simple way to do this, that I have not seen before, but Maybe DaveR has already talked about….

Many of the tutorials I have seen involve trying to draw a new plane and getting it lined up with the axes that you want to cut and all that rigor moral….I have found an easier way with the simple line tool.

First using the protractor tool draw your angle of attack…this is the angle that you are trying to cut(or miter) on your object. This will create a guideline directly on your object. Now if you were to use the pencil tool on this, it would become a part of your object, which we dont want.

Select the move tool and press the ctrl key to switch to copy mode. Click on your guide line, then push the up arrow key on your keyboard. This will lock it to vertical axes movement only. Raise the line an arbitrary amount.

Now using the pen tool Select a point on the new guideline outside of the object, and following the guideline move to a point along the guideline on the opposite side of your object and click. This will set your first line, you will notice that if you move your pen, another line is already attached. Push your up arrow to lock it in again and move to a point outside the dimensions of your object again. Push the esc button to stop drawing. Click on your top line, where you dont have a line extending down, and once again push your up arrow key to lock in movement. Now move your pen tool to the bottom of your other vetical line and Sketchup will create a line at your original point that will match the height of this line. click to lock that line in place then move your pointer just a little and you will see another line meeting your final point to form a square. Click on that point and voila you have your cutting plane.

Select the entire object you are cutting and the cutting plane(this is easier if you only have them visible and choose ctrl-a) right click and choose intersect with selection.

The object is now cut along your cutting surface and all that is left for you to do is carefully delete the parts you dont need. any longer…

I will try and add picture later…but I wanted to get this all down before I forget. DaveR if you havent done it this way before(which I doubt) your welcome to take this and clean it up for your needs if you want to use it.

-- If you can't build it, code it. If you can't code it, build it. But always ALWAYS take a picture.